Golf archive

Eslie Folsom’s string of SWGA city championships ended as Lauren Sewell defeated the five-time defending champ. Leslie Folsom’s string of Seattle Women’s Golf Association city championships was finally snapped Thursday as Lauren Sewell defeated the five-time defending champ 7 and 6 on the 30th hole at Fairwood Country Club in Renton.

Sewell, a senior-to-be at Oregon State who attended Kentridge High School, was playing on her home course.

Folsom, from Rainier G&CC in Des Moines, is the only player in the 86-year history of the event to win five consecutive times.

Sewell got to the championship match with a semifinal win Wednesday over Cassie McKinley, while Folsom beat Sue Ursino in a rematch of last year’s final.

Folsom earlier shot 72 for medalist honors in the field of 88.

Jockey Mitchell back at track

Emerald Downs jockey Gallyn Mitchell, who suffered a heart attack at his home in April, was back at work at the Auburn track after being cleared by doctors.

Mitchell, who turns 51 in August, began the season with track-leading totals of 1,347 victories, 76 stakes triumphs and $13,847,580 in purse earnings.

He has also worked as a stunt rider and appeared in the movies “Seabiscuit,” “Little Big Man” and “Planet of the Apes.”

Memorial service for Erickson set

A public memorial service for Melissa Erickson will be at 5 p.m. Friday at Alaska Airlines Arena on the University of Washington campus.

The former UW basketball player died June 5 after a seven-year battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). She was 34.

Erickson helped UW reach the NCAA Elite Eight in her senior season in 2001. The family requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the ALS Therapy Development Institute’s “Young Faces of ALS.”

Golf

Raychelle Santos beat Gonzaga teammate Ciera Min 4 and 3 and Oklahoma’s Chirapat Jao-Javanil 2 and 1 to reach Friday’s quarterfinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship in Norman, Okla.

Rowing

Former Washington State rower Lisa Roman was named to the Canadian Senior Team, which will compete in The Netherlands June 29-30 and in the World Rowing Cup in Switzerland July 12-14.

Sewell defeats Folsom for city golf title | Golf | The Seattle Times

Mike McGraw has been fired as Oklahoma State's men's golf coach, the school said Friday night in a news release.

“This was not an easy decision,” athletic director Mike Holder said in the release. “I could go on forever about what a good man Mike McGraw is, but at the end of the day, I had to do what I felt was in the best interest of the program.”

Oklahoma State, a perennial national power, placed 14th in the recent NCAA Championship and was No. 12 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings.

“We didn’t play any good,” McGraw told The Oklahoman newspaper. “We didn’t coach any good, either. We had a lot of disappointing tournaments where I thought we underachieved as players and coaches, and you must do better than that and we just didn’t.”

McGraw had coached the Cowboys since fall 2005, replacing Holder. McGraw was hired at the Stillwater school in 1997 as an assistant. He briefly guided the OSU women, in the 2004-05 season, before being promoted to men's head coach.

In McGraw's inaugural season, Oklahoma State won the 2006 NCAA title, the school's 10th national championship in men's golf. He coached the Cowboys to five consecutive Big 12 Conference crowns and was a five-time Big 12 coach of the year. OSU added an NCAA runner-up finish in 2010.

However, OSU had slipped in recent years, placing sixth in the Big 12 in 2012 and failing to advance to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 65 years.

McGraw was only the third coach in the storied program's history. Labron Harris started OSU's golf program in 1947 and, through 1973, won an NCAA championship and 24 conference titles. His successor, Holder, took the program to national prominence, winning eight NCAA titles and 25 conference championships in 32 years.

“I respect what Mike Holder has accomplished here, and I respect Mike Holder’s decision to take the program another direction,” McGraw told The Oklahoman. “If you respect the history and tradition of the program, you must respect that as well."



College golf, men: Report says Oklahoma State fires men's golf coach Mike McGraw

Just one round of golf separates Danny Lee from putting one foot on next year's PGA Tour.

Lee continued his recent resurgence on the Web-com Tour, shooting an eight-under-par in today's third round to move into the lead at the Rex Hospital Open in North Carolina.
Lee now sits on a 17-under total from three rounds and leads the pack by four strokes as he seeks his second tour win - and perhaps an even greater prize.

If he manages to hold his advantage in tomorrow's final round at TPC Wakefield Plantation, Lee would pocket the lion's share of the $800,000 purse and skyrocket up the Web-com order of merit.

Lee, who came into the tournament in 23rd place on the money list, would move to No 3 on the rankings and sit comfortably inside the top-25 cut-off for players who automatically punch their ticket for next year's PGA Tour.

The world No 289 played on the United States' top tour in 2012 but lost his card and missed out by one shot at the final stage of qualifying school, consigning him to the Web-com Tour.

But his stay on the second-tier tour may be a brief one, especially if he can repeat his dazzling form from moving day in Raleigh.

Lee notched eight birdies while hitting 17 greens in regulation, leaving him understandably satisfied with his day's work.

"I thought everybody was playing good so I was just focusing on each shot and trying to make as many birdies as possible,'' Lee told the PGA Tour website. "I shot eight-under, what could go wrong?''

The 22-year-old, who last week finished tied for 15th at the Air Capital Classic, has made a number of promising starts on tour this year but has been unable to make it back into the winner's circle, something he is hoping to change.

"I don't want to think ahead right now. This is only the third round,'' said Lee, who has managed six top-25 finishes in 12 starts in 2013. "I just want to play another round of golf and see what happens.''

Meanwhile, Lee is not the only Kiwi golfer chasing a win in the United States. Teen phenom Lydia Ko is right in the mix as she seeks her second career victory in the LPGA Tour, sitting three shots off the lead heading into the final round of the NW Arkansas Championship.

Ko, 16, began the three-round event with a two-under 69 but made a big improvement in today's second round, firing a five-under 66 to move within striking distance at the $2.7million tournament.

The world No 1 amateur, who previously bested the professionals at last year's Canadian Open, is using the event in Arkansas as preparation for a tilt at next week's US Open in New York, where she will seek to become the youngest ever major winner.







Golf: Lee leads in Raleigh - Sport - NZ Herald News

Golfers expect to encounter hazards or misfortune during a round of golf. We all end up in a bunker or out of bounds. But not many golfers expect to end up in court. Or jail. Although it may not be very likely that you will end up talking to a lawyer instead of the 19th hole bartender after a round, it happens more often than you might imagine.

And as a public service, here’s one spot where the law intersects golf with some frequency: a par 3 on a busy course.

Why? Because that’s where the traffic bottlenecks happen, and those make people impatient and short-tempered. Golfers waiting irritably on the tee often don’t wait for the players in front of them to get in their carts and drive away or walk a safe distance from the green after they’ve putted out.

So these golfers on the tee, who feel aggrieved because they’ve been waiting for several minutes, fire away anyway, even if people are still lingering near the green. Sometimes, this is done with purpose — it’s a warning shot meant to get people to move along faster (even though that preceding group probably had to wait as well).

Well, guess what? If you hit somebody in your haste — getting hit with a golf ball often causes severe injuries — you are probably going to be found liable by a court and could pay some significant damages to the person you hit.

“The golfer is responsible for making sure that other golfers are out of the way before they hit,” said Robert Lang, a New York-based lawyer who has handled dozens of golf-related cases. “Yes, it’s true they aren’t responsible for hitting someone one or two holes away because they slice a ball, but if you’re on the tee and someone is near the green of the hole you are aiming at and you hit that person, you’re liable.”

In other words, multiple courts have ruled that golfers aren’t accountable for errant shots, but hitting someone in your intended line of fire is not an accident.

Which leads to public service tip No. 2: Be careful when hitting mulligans. There are a lot of lawsuits generated by the act of reteeing and smacking a second tee shot, especially by the last golfer to tee off in a group. That’s because everyone reasonably expects each golfer to hit only one tee shot, and the rest of the group starts driving or walking down the fairway or otherwise does not stand in a protected area.

The mulligan swinger is often already irritated and, without looking, hurriedly tees another ball and whacks away. When he hits one of his playing partners, nasty injuries have ensued, as have successful lawsuits.

“You really have to be careful on the golf course because you’d be amazed at all the ways the law can come into play,” said Dalton B. Floyd, a South Carolina lawyer who has represented many golf courses, clubs and golfers. Floyd teaches a class in golf law at the Charleston School of Law.

“We take the law students out on the golf course and go over some things,” Floyd said.

For example, did you know that a club is responsible for making sure the yardage markers embedded in the fairway or marked on a cart path are reasonably accurate? One golfer hit another golfer standing on a green because an inaccurate yardage marker indicated he was farther away than he actually was. The golfer sued the club for misleading him and causing injury, for which he was initially held liable. When the yardage marker was proved to be incorrect, the club was then held responsible.

Floyd also instructs golf course owners to scrupulously check all their cart paths, bridges and other walkways for irregularities or dangerous conditions.

“Slip-and-fall cases are more common than anything,” Floyd said. “The club can be found negligent.”

Golf courses can also be sued for design flaws that lead to the beaning of golfers — imagine a tee on the first hole that too easily endangers golfers on the adjacent second hole. The remedy might be to plant a line of trees.

Then again, if those trees obscure the view of some nearby homeowner who always loved the view of the second hole from his patio, that could prompt another suit. Of course, if another house on the golf course is being peppered by an inordinate number of wayward golf shots — some houses are hit 100 times a month — the golf course could be compelled by a court to put up some more trees or a screen to protect that house.

So, it can become complicated. And I haven’t even talked about what happens when a private club expels a member for offensive behavior and the member sues. That can get uglier than a triple bogey.

There are so many places to go in this discussion and myths to debunk. Let’s take that time-honored tradition of yelling “fore” if you think someone might be hit by your shot. Surely, that absolves you of liability if something goes wrong, right?

“Yelling ‘fore’ is not a legal defense,” Lang said. “It might avoid someone getting hit and it might be acting reasonably, but if you shouldn’t have hit your shot in the first place because someone was in your intended flight, you’re still in trouble.”

O.K., so we’ve already got enough people who are afraid to take up golf because of all the rules and such; I don’t want to scare others off the course because they’re afraid of litigation, too. The fact is that the golf tribe gets along pretty well during the nearly 500 million rounds played annually in America. But here are two other sensible considerations while you’re out there:

■ Keep your golf cart on the path whenever you can, avoid steep hills — going up or down — and keep your feet inside the cart.

“People treat the golf cart like a toy,” Lang said. “It’s easy to tip it over, and there are no helmets or restraints. Once you’ve seen that happen, you’ll never think about a golf cart the same way.”

■ Golf rage is more dangerous than rage in the grocery store line.

“At the grocery store, there might be shoving or maybe a punch,” Lang said. “On the golf course, people sometimes start s

My friends were incredulous when they heard I was going to play golf with Sir Nick Faldo, the British Open and Masters golf champion from the '80s and '90s, former world No. 1 and these days an on-air golf analyst for CBS.

There were two major reasons for their incredulity. The first is that I don't play golf. The second is that I really don't play golf. On the rare occasions when I've tried, the results have been depressing, to say the least. When I say rarely, I mean I've played twice. The first time occurred when my friend Lloyd took me to a driving range. I'm not unathletic, generally speaking. I run; I play tennis. But within minutes it became obvious to Lloyd, who probably had hopes of grooming a golf buddy, that I was singularly inept.

I simply couldn't make contact with the ball, let alone send it soaring into the stratosphere the way professional golfers, or most anybody else, seems to be able to do after swatting at balls long enough.

When our outing was over, I felt bad for me but worse for him. He appeared crestfallen. I could tell it wasn't just because I'd never be able to play with him, but also because my incompetence probably shattered all his beliefs about practice, dedication and the perfectibility of the human species. Simply put, a chimp with a nine iron could have made better contact with the ball, and undoubtedly launched it farther.

My second attempt at the game occurred a couple of years ago, at an actual golf course in the Berkshires with my friends Tad and Bruce. That outing accomplished something important, though it wasn't teaching me how to play.

I got a glimmer of why people love to play the game, especially when the weather is cooperative. You're out in nature among friends, and not just nature but domesticated nature, though I suppose golfers who find their balls frequently in the rough don't feel as enamored of grass and trees as I do.

But I hardly played any better than I had with Lloyd. Again, my companions were impressed—by my lack of talent. Add to their disbelief regarding my celebrity golf outing the fact that my companion was to be Sir Nick Faldo, rather than anybody else. I could tell that the mere mention of his name triggered something primal in the male golfer psyche. They weren't just impressed by his stats—he won six majors—but also by his honesty and irreverence as a sportscaster, and his burgeoning business empire. It includes designing golf courses, starting a nonprofit that trains young golf talent and lending his name to apparel and golf clubs. Sir Nick is apparently the quintessential alpha male.

Lloyd even sent me a mash note to pass along to him. "I can't believe my friend, Ralph, gets to hang out with you for a day," it started. "I have been saying for years that I would love to play a round of golf with Sir Nick Faldo." The note concluded with Lloyd inviting him to do just that. Sir Nick accepted the compliment with equanimity. I also had someone take our picture on my cellphone just to prove I'd met him and, later in the day after we'd bonded (though I should only speak for myself), I had the golfer sign a couple of balls for my friends.

Bruce had also sent along his encouragement as I headed to the 34th Street heliport, where Sir Nick and I were to board a helicopter for the short ride to the Winged Foot Golf Club in Westchester. "At least you got a good day for it," Bruce wrote. "Too bad there is no wind. It would affect the others but your shots would be closer to the ground."

I wasn't intimidated to be playing with Sir Nick Faldo. Or, I should say, no more intimidated than I would be with any other stranger who might find my incompetence uncompelling. My only goal was simply not to suck, not to be such an albatross that I destroyed everybody's good time; I feared that, given my skills, by nightfall we might have made it no further than the fifth hole.

In fact, I'd made it clear from the start to Glenmorangie, the whiskey that organized the outing, and for which Sir Nick serves as brand ambassador, that I didn't play golf. Nonetheless, they wrote back asking for my handicap. I reiterated my inexperience, and wondered whether there might yet be time to bow out. If I had a handicap, it would probably be somewhere in the 5,000 range, because that's how often I whiff the ball.

Sir Nick seemed like a decent guy, even if he yawned a lot. I learned he'd been giving interviews since the crack of dawn. It seems that after playing not much more than a dozen times a year lately, he's going to test his luck at the Open Championships in Scotland next month—considered an act of courage or bravado, though no more so, in my opinion, than me imposing myself on actual golfers.

I was particularly impressed by Sir Nick's physique. I've always thought of professional golfers as slight, as athletic everymen. But Nick is built like an NFL quarterback—6-foot-3, broad-shouldered and, even at 55 years old, all muscle.

After we arrived at Winged Foot—considered one of the world's most celebrated and challenging golf courses, though they're all equally challenging to me—we had a light lunch and headed out to the driving range to warm up.

Sir Nick, who'd boldly claimed back at the heliport that he could teach me the game in a day, tried to show me how to grip a club. But I couldn't even follow those simple instructions: something about inserting the pinkie of your right hand between the index and middle fingers of your left hand and then locking your hands around the club.

I recognized something in his face that I also had seen when Lloyd and Bruce tried to teach me the game. It wasn't frustration or anger; it was sadness.

When we reached the first hole—it turned out I was part of a foursome that included a couple of other journalists and Maxime Balay, Glenmorangie's brand director—Nick, who was to float between us and another foursome, tried to teach me the proper stance. It didn't do my game much good, as

Mentioning that Rowland Heights' Tiffany Lua will be playing in this week's U.S. Women's Open at Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y., isn't necessarily news. This will mark her fourth appearance in the most prestigious event in women's golf.

What is news is the former UCLA standout will be competing as a professional.

After years of top-level amateur golf, including participation on two Curtis Cup teams, playing on a Junior Solheim Cup team captained by LPGA Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez, helping lead the Bruins to the 2011 NCAA national championship and reaching the semifinals of the 2011 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links, the 22-year-old said she is eager to play golf for a living.

"My parents (Donna and Michael) ask me now how my day was and I say, 'It was good. I went to work,' " Lua joked.

The 5-foot-4, 125-pounder officially made her pro debut earlier this month at Orange Tree Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., where she competed in an event on the Cactus Tour, a mini-tour circuit for women. Lua finished third and won $1,100.

After the Open, Lua has nothing definite planned on her schedule aside from the first stage of the LPGA Tour's qualifying school, which is scheduled for Aug. 27-30 at the Arnold Palmer and Dinah Shore courses at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. Lua reached this point after tying Rancho Cucamonga's Gabriella Then for low-medalist honors in a local qualifier at Oak Valley Golf Club in Beaumont.

"It's hard to believe how everything has gone by so quickly," Lua said.

"Playing in my first event as a pro, I was a little nervous. It just felt weird. I felt like I had to be a little more serious.

"But at the same time, I was doing the same thing I've always been doing. I've waited 10 years, a decade to get to this point."

Her mother, Donna, a frequent travel partner and caddy in her daughter's first pro event -- "I just drove the cart," she said with a laugh -- said she will be watching with understandable anxiety.

"I have mixed feelings," she said. "I'm kind of nervous, but I'm also excited for her. I'm happy she made that choice after she's worked so hard all these years."

Lua, a psychology major who graduated a quarter early, said she will miss UCLA -- "Just being around the resources and the support system offered to you," she said -- but feels ready to take the next step in her life. Lua, once a competitive swimmer (her favorite events were the butterfly and individual medley), has been thinking about playing professional golf since she was 10 or 11 and doesn't plan on wasting this opportunity.

Which means she will continue to fine-tune her game. She said there's always room for improvement.

Sharpening her game isn't the only challenge that awaits her, she said.

"There are a lot of things that come with turning pro, actually," she said. "I have to find out where I'm going to play, where I'm going to work out, things like that. It's almost like rebuilding your training regimen. In college, all those things were taken care of.

"You have to know what to look for now, what works best for you and figure out how to do that. It's really a big process. There are a lot of responsibilities.

"A lot of little things add up to a lot."

She also said what lies ahead is exciting.

"It really is," she said. "I went through every level and I'm kind of approaching the last level. I still remember local city golf, then junior golf, than USGA, college and now the professional ranks.

"I'm really looking forward to it."



Golf: Tiffany Lua ready to give pro tour a try - Press-Telegram

Golf is a team sport, at least here, this week. You could see it in all of those people who approached Levittown's Annie Park with autograph requests and good wishes on being the Long Islander in Long Island's first U.S. Women's Open.

"I'm from Seaford," someone shouted, or "My son is going to MacArthur [High School]."

Then there was Leslie Marisi, a woman from Levittown who took the train to Sebonack Golf Club on Tuesday and was thrilled to meet Park and get her signature. "I think it's amazing, and I think it's a long time coming," Marisi said about seeing a fellow resident in a major championship.

In this most individual of sports, Park has many teammates this week. Among those are not only the Long Islanders who are pulling for one of their own, but all kinds of Long Islanders who played on the national stage while standing on home turf.

"Everybody," said Lizette Salas, the LPGA tour pro who went to USC (Park's current school) and practiced with her yesterday, "knows Annie."

"She is some special player, obviously. I think it's great," said Stephen Smith, head of the Long Island Golf Association, who was a volunteer marshal on No. 11 yesterday when Park went through. "There's a lot of local interest. I think if it would be great if she made the cut and went all the way."

No, her place in the Open starting this afternoon does not have the cultural heft of Southampton teenager John Shippen playing the 1896 U.S. Open on his home course -- U.S. Golf Association president Theodore Havemeyer had to hold strong against a revolt from European pros who objected to playing alongside Shippen because he had black heritage. But her play this week does belong amid, and add to, local tradition.

Park is the daughter of immigrants -- and let's face it, most of us are descendants of people who came from somewhere else, even if it was just New York City. She went through the public school system, graduating a semester early from MacArthur. She learned and practiced her golf on public driving ranges and courses (mostly Bethpage). So she qualifies as one of us.

She also rates as one of them, members of a special group: Mrs. Charles S. Brown winning the 1895 Women's Amateur at Meadow Brook, Walter Travis dominating the Garden City Golf Club invitational that eventually was named for him, Gene Sarazen winning the Open at Fresh Meadow, Darrell Kestner playing the Open at Shinnecock and Bethpage, Joe Saladino winning matches in the U.S. Mid-Amateur at Atlantic.

The point is, her first shot Thursday will be part of Long Island golf history, and that is as good as it gets, at least in terms of American golf.

Having the Open here -- a few yards away from National Links, the home course of iconic American golf architect Charles Blair Macdonald -- and having Park in it are double reminders how special Long Island is to the game. It is more than the caricatures that have stuck -- leather-lunged fans razzing Sergio Garcia, rains flooding the Black Course, parched earth scarring the memory of the 2004 Shinnecock Open.

Long Island was the cradle of American golf, and it still is thriving.

It is the juniors who sign up at Michael Hebron's programs at Smithtown Landing and the seniors who get up early to play at Eisenhower Red. It is Joe Rehor giving lessons on those mats at Bethpage and Met PGA head Charlie Robson, a Long Islander, making life better for golfers everywhere with his innovations.

It is Island Hills and North Hills and Rock Hill, Sands Point to Bergen Point, Cherry Valley to Cherry Creek. It is golfers who are there to greet dawn at Montauk Downs and those who cheat dusk at Inwood on the Queens border.

Long Island is golf's home team.

Annie Park is an ambassador. Today is her day, and ours, too.





Annie Park a symbol of Long Island's rich golf heritage

If there's one word that represents Thursday at the AT&T National, it's "penal." That's what all the players are saying about the rough here at Bethesda that is playing more like it did during the U.S. Open in 2011 than most players expected.

After a two-under 69 that got him into an eight-way tie for fifth place, Jim Furyk told Sirius Radio he was a bit "surprised" by the scores. "The greens are receptive. . . It wasn't overly breezy; we got the cloud cover to keep the moisture in the golf course, but it's just a long hard golf course."

Enter Mr. Simplicity-first round leader Roberto Castro who turned in a five-under 66 by. . .well, just staying out of the rough.

"You just have to drive it in the fairway," said Castro, who also led after the first round of the Humana Challenge and The Players Championship. "The rough I feel like is longer than last year so drive it in the fairway and you'll have a chance to make birdie. You hit it in the rough, you're going to have some par saves to make."

And, boy, did he ever. On the eighth hole, Castro's drive went well right, and he didn't have a clear look back toward the fairway. So he took the slightly less conventional route and pitched out even further to the right to the ninth tee box. From there, he wrapped up his adventure with a 60-yard wedge shot to seven feet, which he made for par. All in a days work.

Castro, who was also aided by a great putting day, added that "you could tee up the U.S. Open here tomorrow," but he seemed intimidated by neither the course nor the leaderboard. On having to hold off major champions like Furyk, Angel Cabrera (70), and Vijay Singh (70) along with a host of others playing great golf this time of year, Castro said he's feeling more comfortable with it than he has in the past when he squandered leads in big spots.

"You look at these guys who have won multiple times; they had to start somewhere, and I'm in that boat right now."

He most certainly is. The only question is, can the lanky red-headed Texan hang on?

AUSSIE! AUSSIE? AUSSIE?

With a diminished field after the withdrawals of Tiger Woods (elbow) and Justin Rose (rest), supplemented today by early exits from Rory Sabbatini (back) and Davis Love III (hip), the buzz at Congressional seemed to fall upon the Australian threesome of Adam Scott, Jason Day, and Marc Leishman. It didn't take long, however, for the spotlight to fall straight on Day, the runner-up two weeks ago at Merion, who emerged from the clubhouse with a wrapped right wrist.

Nevertheless, and even as Scott (73) and Leishman (75) faded, Day hung around. Perhaps fueled by an immensely important win for his home state's rugby team earlier this week, Day labored through six missed fairways and four visits to greenside sand traps en route to a one-under-70 that sees him tied for thirteenth.

"It only hurts through impact. . .especially when I'm hitting uphill shots or out of a bunker," he said while signing autographs-with his strained wrist-for delighted fans. "But it's okay. I'm not complaining about it. I just gotta watch it."

While Day lamented that his fellow countrymen struggled, he said everyone seemed to enjoy the afternoon. Walking off the tenth green, Scott enthusiastically indulged one spectator in an "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" chant much to the crowd's pleasure.

They'll do it again, albeit hopefully with better results, tomorrow morning at 7:27 a.m.

HORSCHEL IN A FAMILIAR SPOT

There's just something about Billy Horschel and the first round this year.

Competing at Tiger Woods' event for the third time in his career, although still looking for his first made cut, Horschel came into the clubhouse as the morning leader after an electric start that included a 51-foot birdie on No. 10, his first hole of the day, and back-to-back birdies on No. 12 and No. 13.

The momentum stalled from there, however, as Horschel found himself routinely in Congressional's nearly-Open-thick-rough and struggled to find greens in regulation. Thanks to two impressive sand saves at the seventeenth and the first though, he managed to hold steady for the final 14 holes finishing tied with for second with Bud Cauley and Graham DeLaet at three-under-par 68.

"This year, I've worked hard on my short game and my putting. When I do miss one offline, I can get it up and down on a regular basis," he told PGATour-com after his round.

This isn't new territory for the former Florida Gator. Horschel is averaging a 69 on Thursdays this year and this was actually just his eighth best opening round this year. It also marks the sixth time this year he goes into Friday inside the top ten although he has only one win to show for it.

Despite his late round struggles, Horschel, who seemed to have a hop in his step all day, still is looking up. "The tougher the course, the better I play," he said. "Those U.S. Opens usually, and when I won earlier Zurich [Classic of New Orleans] this year. . . you can only build confidence in that."

Read more: Congressional tough on players in AT&T National 2013 first round - GOLF-com

World No 1 amateur golfer Lydia Ko slipped out of contention at the US Open Championship but remained on course to continue a pair of personal streaks.

Ko came into the tournament at Southampton, New York with designs on becoming the youngest major winner in golf history, but today's underwhelming second round left the 16-year-old in a tie for 32nd, 12 shots off the pace.

After opening with a steady even par 72 in yesterday's first round at the Sebonack Golf Club, Ko dropped three shots to sit three-over for the tournament when her round was suspended due to fog with two holes to play.

Ko, the world No 16, will resume early tomorrow morning well back of leader Inbee Park of South Korea, who sits on nine-under, but two shots inside the cut line.

If she avoids disaster on the final two holes, Ko will continue her record of making the cut in all of the 18 professional tournaments in which she has participated.

Ko is also tied for the leading amateur with Canadian Brooke Mackenzie Henderson, giving her ample opportunity to finish in that position in her fifth straight major. After making the turn today in even par, with a bogey on 13 cancelled out by a birdie on 18, Ko ran into trouble on her homeward nine. She made a triple-bogey six on the third and followed that up with bogeys on four and six, but two birdies preventing her from slipping further down the leaderboard.

Ko, the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history, came into the event after an impressive showing last week at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, where she finished tied fourth.



Golf: Ko slips back at US Open - Sport - NZ Herald News

South Korean Park Inbee became only the second LPGA player to win the first three majors in a season when she roared to a four-stroke victory at the U.S. Women's Open on Sunday.

The world number one held steady with a final-round two-over-par 74 to finish at eight-under 280 at Sebonack Golf Club in New York.

"I just hope this is not a dream," Park, who earlier this year won the Kraft Nabisco and LPGA championships, told reporters. "I don't want to wake up tomorrow and play the final round again."

Only Mildred (Babe) Didrikson Zaharias has previously won the first three women's majors in a season. She did it in 1950, winning the Titleholders Championship, the Women's Western Open and the U.S. Women's Open.

Fellow South Korean I.K. Kim matched Parks' 74 and took second at four-under 284 but was never able to really challenge Park.

Ryu So-Yeon was third at one-under 287 with Americans Paula Creamer and Angela Stanford and England's Jodi Ewart-Shadoff tied for fourth at one-over 289.

Entering the day with a four-stroke advantage, Park's lead was briefly trimmed to three when Kim birdied the second hole but the runner-up gave a shot right back with a bogey on No. 4.

After bogeying holes No. 6 and No. 7, Park ran off birdies at the ninth and 10th holes to swell her cushion to six shots.

Park has won five times overall this year and three in a row. She took over the top ranking after claiming the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April, then added the LPGA Championship earlier this month.

She will attempt to make it four majors in four tries at the at the Women's British Open in August before competing in September's Evian Masters, which has become the women's fifth major.

"I'm glad that I can give it a try at St. Andrews (for the British Open)," Park said. "That's going to be a great experience. Whether or not I (win it), I'm just a very lucky person."



Golf: South Korean Park wins third consecutive major | Reuters

The U.S. PGA Tour will follow a new rule that bans the anchored putting stroke used by four of the last six major champions, asking instead today for a temporary reprieve for those who play the game for fun.

The announcement after a tour board meeting is the final piece of confirmation from a major golf organization for Rule 14-1b, which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2016 when the next "Rules of Golf" is published. The rule makes it illegal for players to attach the end of the club to their body to make a stroke.

Adam Scott used a long putter held against his chest when he won the Masters. Ernie Els (British Open) and Webb Simpson (U.S. Open) used a belly putter last year. Keegan Bradley in the 2011 U.S. PGA Championship was the first major champion with a belly putter.

The Royal & Ancient Golf Club and U.S. Golf Association proposed the new rule in November and allowed for a three-month comment period. It formally adopted the rule in May.

Finchem said in February the tour was opposed to the new rule because there were no data to suggest an advantage and no "overriding reason to go down that road." The tour's opinion was shaped by a players-only meeting that month.

"In making its decision, the policy board recognized that there are still varying opinions among our membership, but ultimately concluded that while it is an important issue, a ban on anchored strokes would not fundamentally affect a strong presentation of our competitions or the overall success of the PGA Tour," Finchem said in a statement.

"The board also was of the opinion that having a single set of rules ... applicable to all professional competitions worldwide was desirable and would avoid confusion."

The decision to go along was not a surprise. The common ground by all sides was the importance of golf being played under one fundamental set of rules, as has been the case for hundreds of years.

The wrinkle that came out of the tour's meeting was asking the R&A and USGA to give amateurs more time to adjust away from the anchored stroke. PGA of America president Ted Bishop was among those concerned that banning the stroke used for long putters would force too many people to quit the game out of frustration, at a time when golf is worried about decreasing participation.

"The policy board continues to believe that extending the time period the ban would go into effect for amateurs would be beneficial for golf participation and the overall health of the game," Finchem said.

Finchem cited the USGA changing the groove configuration for irons in 2008. It was effective for elite play in 2010, but does not apply to recreational play until 2014.

But the decision on grooves was an equipment issue. Anchoring is a change in the actual rules of golf. For the USGA and R&A, which set the rules for the 600-year-old game, to allow amateurs more time to use anchored strokes would be created two sets of rules.

The PGA of America also said it would follow the new rule, while expressing concern about amateurs.

"We continue to feel strongly that the amateur player needs a longer period of adjustment to this rule," Bishop said.

Neither Finchem nor Bishop recommended a date for amateurs.

Finchem also sounded a warning that the tour reserves the right to make its own rules for its players, and that the USGA pledged "open and effective communication" on any future discussions on the rules.

"It is not inconceivable that there may come a time in the future when the policy board determines that a rule adopted by the USGA, including in the area of equipment, may not be in the best interests of the PGA Tour, and that a local rule eliminating or modifying such a USGA rule may be appropriate," he said.



Golf: PGA bans belly putter from 2016 - Sport - NZ Herald News

Golf is all set to get the much-needed push in Gujarat that is being touted as the next big destination for the sport. The state will soon get its own golf association that will manage and represent the sport. The Indian Golf Union (IGU) has given go-ahead to start golf association in Gujarat that will represent the sport and also make efforts to get more golf courses in the state.

The council members of Indian Golf Union (IGU) that is the apex body of the sport in the country discussed the development of golf in Gujarat during their meet in the city on Sunday. Once the association is formed, funds will start flowing in the state for promoting the sport.

"There are seven to eight clubs in Gujarat and they will come together to form an association here. This will be the first formal golf association in the state and it will help to promote the sport in big way. Gujarat is the next big destination for golf and IGU will do everything necessary to promote the sport in the state," said Raian Irani, vice-president of IGU.

IGU is upbeat about golf development as the sport has been included in 2016 Olympics. "Once formed, the association will be given affiliation by IGU. The golf body will then hold talks with the state government for promoting the sport and also join hands with state Olympics body. The idea is to have more public courses where common people can play golf. We will urge the government to create driving ranges, which require very less land, in good numbers," Irani told TOI.

Samarjitsinh Gaekwad, president of Gaekwad Baroda Golf Club (GBGC) and IGU council member, said that the state will start getting funds from IGU after the association is formed formally. "Once the association is formed, every golf club in the state will be treated like a district. The Gujarat golf association will come under IGU's west zone that comprises Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Goa. We will start getting funds and several golf tournaments and programmes will be held in the state through this association," Gaekwad added.



Golf to be an organized sport in Gujarat - The Times of India

PGA TOUR

GREENBRIER CLASSIC

Site: White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.

Schedule: Thursday-Sunday.

Course: The Greenbrier Resort, The Old White TPC (7,287 yards, par 70).

Purse: $6.3 million. Winner's share: $1,134,000.

Television: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m., 6:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m.; Saturday, 1-2:30 p.m., 6:30-11 p.m.; Sunday, 1-2:30 p.m., 7-11:30 p.m.) CBS (Saturday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m.).

Last year: Ted Potter Jr. won his first PGA Tour title, beating Troy Kelly with a birdie on the third hole of a playoff. Tiger Woods missed the cut.

Last week: Bill Haas won the AT&T National at Congressional for his fifth PGA Tour title, closing with a 5-under 66 for a three-stroke victory over Roberto Castro.

Notes: Phil Mickelson is making his first start since tying for second three weeks ago in the U.S. Open. ... Haas and Champions Tour players Tom Watson and Kenny Perry also are in the field. Watson is Greenbrier's golf professional emeritus. Perry won the Senior Players Championship on Sunday. ... Tour victory leader Sam Snead was Greenbrier's professional for 29 years and served as professional emeritus from 1993 until his death in 2002. ... In the inaugural event in 2010, Stuart Appleby shot the fifth 59 in PGA Tour history to win by a stroke. Appleby birdied the final three holes and finished the 11-under round with nine birdies and an eagle. ... University of California star Michael Kim, the Haskins Awards winner as the college player of the year, received a sponsor exemption. ... The John Deere Classic is next week in Silvis, Ill., followed by the British Open at Muirfield.

EUROPEAN TOUR

FRENCH OPEN

Site: Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France.

Schedule: Thursday-Sunday.

Course: Le Golf National, Albatross Course (7,331 yards, par 71).

Purse: $3.91 million. Winner's share: $651,200.

Television: Golf Channel (Thursday-Friday, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m.-noon, 11:30 p.m.-3 a.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m.-noon; Monday, midnight-3 a.m.).

Last year: Germany's Marcel Siem beat Italy's Francesco Molinari by a stroke.

Last week: England's Paul Casey won the Irish Open for his 12th European Tour title, holing a 50-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole for a three-stroke victory.

Notes: American Matt Kuchar is in the field along with English stars Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell and Germany's Martin Kaymer. Kuchar has two PGA Tour victories this year, winning the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in February and the Memorial last month. ... First played in 1906, the tournament is the oldest in continental Europe. ... France's Thomas Levet won the 2011 event. ... The Scottish Open is next week at Castle Stuart, followed by the British Open at Muirfield.

LPGA TOUR

Next event: Manulife Financial LPGA Classic, July 11-14, Grey Silo Golf Course, Waterloo, Ontario.

Last week: Inbee Park won the U.S. Women's Open at Sebonack in Southampton, N.Y., for her third straight major title and sixth victory of the year. The top-ranked South Korean star finished at 8 under for a four-stroke victory. Babe Zaharias is the only other player to win the first three majors of season, accomplishing the feat in 1950 when there were only three majors. Park also won the 2008 tournament.

CHAMPIONS TOUR

Next event: U.S. Senior Open, July 11-14, Omaha Country Club, Omaha, Neb.

Last week: Kenny Perry won the Senior Players Championship at Fox Chapel in Pittsburgh for his first major title. He closed with rounds of 63, 63 and 64 to beat Fred Couples and Duffy Waldorf by two strokes.

WEB.COM TOUR

Next event: Utah Championship, July 11-14, Willow Creek Country Club, Sandy, Utah.

Last week: Ben Martin won the United Leasing Championship in a Monday finish, beating Joe Affrunti, Ashley Hall and Billy Hurley with a par on the first hole of a playoff.

OTHER TOURNAMENTS

MEN

JAPAN GOLF TOUR: Nagashima Shigeo Invitational Sega Sammy Cup, Thursday-Sunday, The North Country Golf Club, Hokkaido, Japan.

PGA TOUR CANADA: Dakota Dunes Open, Thursday-Sunday, Dakota Dunes Golf Links, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

EUROPEAN SENIOR TOUR: Bad Ragaz PGA Seniors Open, Friday-Sunday, Bad Ragaz Golf Club, Bad Ragaz, Switzerland.

EUROPEAN CHALLENGE TOUR: Bad Griesbach Challenge Tour, Thursday-Sunday, Hartl Resort, Bad Griesbach, Germany.

SUNSHINE TOUR: Sun City Challenge, Wednesday-Friday, Lost City Golf Club, Sun City, South Africa.

NGA TOUR: Florida Marine Open, Thursday-Sunday, Beau Chene Country Club, Mandeville, La.

WOMEN

JAPAN LPGA TOUR: Nichi-Iko Ladies Open, Friday-Sunday, Yatsuo Country Club, Toyama, Japan.



This week in golf, at a glance

It is only fitting that Inbee Park will pursue a Grand Slam at St. Andrews, the home of golf, in the same year the men will play the Open Championship at Muirfield.

After all, in the all-too-rare instances in which the possibility of such a feat even occurred or was possible, those two places in Scotland played a role.

In the last 53 years, only three men have had an opportunity to win a Grand Slam, with Arnold Palmer seeing his run ended at St. Andrews in 1960, and Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods having it come to an end at Muirfield in 1972 and 2002, respectively. (It of course should be noted that Woods captured four in a row, the so-called Tiger Slam, in 2000-01.)

Then there is Bobby Jones, whose Slam consisted of the U.S. Opens and Amateurs; he won the British Amateur at St. Andrews in 1930 on his way to becoming the only player to win all four tournaments in the same year.

Park will head to St. Andrews and the Old Course later this month with a chance to add another major title to her 2013 résumé after wins at the Kraft Nabisco, LPGA Championship and U.S. Women's Open.

Only Babe Zaharias -- in the LPGA's first year, 1950 -- won the first three majors, and there were only three at the time. Annika Sorenstam was the last LPGA player to capture the first two, in 2005, and then tied for 23rd at the U.S. Women's Open.

The Old Course would seem the perfect place for the pursuit of such history. So much of it has occurred there already. And so rarely has even a glimmer of hope existed in terms of the Grand Slam.

The LPGA's muddled history of major championships makes putting it into context all the more difficult. Over the years, the tournaments deemed majors have changed. And it gets worse this year as the Evian Championship in France has been added as a fifth major.

That appears an unfortunate decision now, one borne out of economics. To retain a valued sponsor and a big purse, the LPGA decreed a tournament with a modicum of history would suddenly be ordained a major -- not replacing a tournament but adding it to the existing roster. A shame, really, because majors typically take time to evolve.

So does Park get credit for a Grand Slam if she wins the Women's British Open but not the Evian? There will surely be debate about that, just as there has been conjecture over the evolution of the Grand Slam. (It is interesting to note that Park won the Evian last year, when it was not considered a major.)

According to Sidney Matthew, a golf historian, Jones and his biographer, O.B. Keeler, were prolific bridge players and the Grand Slam term emanated from the card game. In bridge, it is sweeping all 13 tricks. In golf, four majors. Or in the case of the LPGA, all five?

Matthew said the term "Grand Slam'' was never used in print in reference to Jones' feat until after he won the U.S. Amateur at Merion in 1930.

And then the notion of a Grand Slam kind of faded away as Jones retired from competitive golf. When Ben Hogan won the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship in 1953, he could not compete in the PGA Championship because the event, then a match play tournament, overlapped with the Open. In fact, it was unlikely that any such notion of a Grand Slam existed in Hogan's mind at the time.

It wasn't until Palmer won the Masters and the U.S. Open at Cherry Hills in 1960 that the term came to life again. Palmer wondered aloud on his way to the Open at St. Andrews -- the first time he would play the tournament -- if capturing it and the PGA Championship could constitute a modern Grand Slam.

The media picked up on the notion, and it was born. Palmer finished second by a stroke to Australian Kel Nagle, his timing a bit off as he would win the Open Championship each of the next two years.

Nicklaus was the next player with a chance, having won the Masters and U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 1972, then was denied by Lee Trevino at Muirfield, falling by a single stroke.

It would be another 30 years before someone would win the first two majors. Woods won the Masters and the U.S. Open at Bethpage in 2002, then went to Muirfield and was just two strokes out of the lead through 36 holes before a blustery storm sent him to his highest round as a pro, a third-round 81.

Nobody has won the first two men's majors since.

Only Sorenstam did it among women, in 2005, with Park the first since Woods to win three majors in the same year since Woods did it in 2000.

Park joined Zaharias, Mickey Wright and Pat Bradley as the only women to win three majors in the same year. Only Hogan and Woods have done it on the men's side.

Whether five majors constitutes a Grand Slam or not, what Park has done already is impressive. Making history at the home of golf would be even more so.



Birdies and Bogeys: More history at the home of golf? -- Golf - ESPN

It's like a holiday at the White House, as President Obama hit the golf links on Friday.

One day after July 4, and one day before the weekend, Obama took a motorcade to Joint Base Andrews for a round of golf with longtime friends Marty Nesbitt and Eric Whitaker.

After the round, Obama boarded the Marine One helicopter for a trip to Camp David, where he will spend the weekend.

American Johnson Wagner moved a step closer to winning his fourth PGA Tour title by seizing a two-shot lead after Saturday's third round of the Greenbrier Classic at White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia.

One stroke off the pace overnight on a tightly bunched leaderboard, Wagner took over at the top as he fired a sparkling six-under-par 64 on a sun-splashed day at The Greenbrier's Old White Course.

The 33-year-old Texan, who played the course several times a year when he was a student at nearby Virginia Tech, mixed seven birdies with a lone bogey to post a 14-under total of 196.

"Today my goal was to go out and make as many birdies as I could, and I did that," Wagner told Golf Channel after sinking a 12-foot birdie putt at the par-three last and pumping his right fist in delight.

"Now I've got to take the same attitude into tomorrow."

Fellow American Jimmy Walker, seeking his first victory on the PGA Tour, was alone in second after matching Wagner for the day's best score, storming home with five birdies in the last nine holes.

Swede Jonas Blixt (67) was a further two strokes back at 10 under, a shot better than Australians Steven Bowditch (69) and Matt Jones (66), and American teenager Jordan Spieth (67).

American Matt Every, the 36-hole leader after opening with scores of 69 and 62, tumbled backwards with four bogeys in the first seven holes on the way to a 74 and a five-under total of 205.

Wagner, co-leader after the opening round, was delighted to maintain his long overdue return to form, having struggled for much of the past year. He came into this week on the back of six missed cuts in his previous seven PGA Tour starts.

"I had a boot camp with my coach about two weekends ago after I missed the cut by about 30 shots at Hartford," he said, referring to last month's Travelers Championship in Connecticut.

"We just got my game kind of back to where it was leading into Hawaii last season and I just feel more comfortable over the ball right now."

Wagner won the most recent of his three PGA Tour titles at the 2012 Sony Open in Hawaii. This year, he has missed 11 cuts on the U.S. circuit without recording a single top-10 in 18 starts.

"It's been over a year now that I have struggled ... luckily I am having a nice week this week," said Wagner, who has regained the ability to shape shots from left-to-right after working hard with his swing coach.

"It's all clicking right now."

Wagner made a fast start to the third round, sinking birdie putts from 10 feet at the first and the third to seize a one-shot lead.

He offset another birdie at the fifth with a bogey at the seventh but picked up his fourth shot of the day at the par-four ninth to reach the turn in three-under 33, one ahead of the chasing pack.

Playing near-flawless golf, Wagner rolled in birdie putts from eight feet at the 10th and from 12 feet at the 12th to move three strokes clear.

He did remarkably well to save par at the 13th where his tee shot struck trees on the right and his ball bounced down into the rough, taking two more strokes to reach the green before sinking a 22-foot putt.

Wagner parred the next four holes before making his seventh birdie of the day at the par-three 18th to stretch his lead to two shots.



Golf - Wagner takes control of Greenbrier Classic - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

The historic men's New Zealand Open has been moved to tourist-friendly Central Otago and opened up to cashed-up businessmen and media-grabbing celebrity amateurs, all backed by $900,000 in Government funding.

The storied 106-year old event is to move from Christchurch to Queenstown, where it will be held at The Hills Golf Club, owned by jeweller Michael Hill, and Millbrook Resort, it was announcemed today.

With that move comes $900,000 from taxpayers in the form of a Major Events Development Fund grant from the Government, allowing expanded prizemoney.

It will be a merger of sorts between the New Zealand Open and the NZPGA tournament, held for the past two years at The Hills, which will remain in a smaller, as-yet unconfirmed capacity.

Like the NZPGA tournament, the 2014 New Zealand Open will feature a pro-am and 132 paying amateurs, which will help fund the event.

Having well-off businessmen, celebrities and sportsmen playing alongside the professionals is a feature of the glittering PGA and European tours, but not at elite national events such as the US Open or The Open, in Britain.

Overseas, the likes of Justin Timberlake, actors Greg Kinnear and Bill Murray, and sportsmen Michael Phelps and Shane Warne have been attention-magnets at pro-ams.

The net result of a much-needed cash injection was to lift the purse from last year's $500,000 to $850,000, helping attract a stronger field.

A partnership announced today with the Japan Golf Tour will also help improve the quality of players and its ability to attract TV coverage and paying spectators.

The 2014 New Zealand Open, to be held in late February, will now be linked with the Japan Tour, and welcomes will be extended to the leading 15 players on that tour, touted as the world's third-strongest.

The new format is aimed at making the tournament more sustainable.

New Zealand Golf lost more than $500,000 last year, $397,000 of that from the Open, won by Australian amateur Jake Higginbottom.

Instead of the New Zealand Open and the NZPGA working against each other, it was designed to create "one truly iconic golf tournament", according to organisers.

The new format is locked in for 2014, 2015 and 2016 although it is understood the intentions are to make this event a permanent fixture on the calendar.

"The New Zealand Open has a rich and diverse 106-year legacy and we are excited by the potential for the event to flourish in Queenstown," New Zealand Golf chairman Paul Fyfe said.

"We believe that this will be a world first for a national open championship to incorporate a pro-am format and it will be an exciting new era for the New Zealand Open." Christchurch will keep the New Zealand Open women's tournament at Clearwater Golf Resort, but will not host the third of its originally scheduled men's open tournaments later this year.

It is another blow for quake-striken Christchurch, with independent economic impact report saying the men's open brought $4 million into the city while the women's reaps $3m annually.

"We would like to sincerely thank Christchurch City Council and Clearwater Golf Resort for their support over the past two New Zealand Opens," Fyfe said.

"These events have been wonderful for the city and achieved much for the game of golf. Christchurch remains a wonderful place to host golf events and we look forward to working alongside the city to deliver the New Zealand Women's Open and other events in Christchurch for years to come."

The new-look New Zealand Open is a joint venture, run by New Zealand Golf, the NZPGA and Michael Hill Tournaments Limited.

The merger is an admission of sorts by New Zealand Golf that the NZPGA tournament had a better format and a more successful one.

A partnership agreement has been signed between Michael Hill Tournaments Limited and the Japanese Golf Tour organisation.

This tournament will be considered a tier one PGA Tour of Australasia event.

It will not be co-sanctioned but a deal with the Japan Tour means 15 places for professionals on that tour. The winner of the New Zealand Open will be awarded a start in the lucrative, NZ$1.9m Japan Tour Championship and two other Japan Tour events.

Not having a tournament at all this year will also be a cost saving for New Zealand Golf.

A more sustainable tournament is understood to have been a major request by the 15 regional district golf bosses.

Their gripe was that with the sport struggling at the grassroots level, it wasn't acceptable for the sport's governing body to be hemorrhaging money on its flagship tournament.


Christchurch Loses New Zealand Open Golf to The... | Stuff.co.nz

Here’s a little stat for those of you interested in such things. The European Tour event last week and this week award more World Golf Rankings points than their two PGA Tour counterparts.

Yes, the European Tour’s French Open had a stronger field than the Greenbrier Classic, according to the computer that puts the ranking points together. And the Scottish Open, a tune-up for many players for the British Open, has a stronger field than the John Deere Classic. If you needed proof that golf is truly a global game these days, you now have it.

Let’s not feel too sorry for the folks at the John Deere Classic, though. While lots of the game’s top players are in Scotland, the John Deere has attracted Steve Stricker, Zach Johnson, world No. 10 Louis Oosthuizen and Keegan Bradley to Silvas, Ill.

For the most part, PGA Tour events are still the strongest in the world when it comes to depth of fields. But half a dozen times a year or so, you are more likely to find the top players in the world (at least the top players in the world playing that week) playing in European Tour events. If Tiger Woods, the game’s top-ranked golfer, is playing, wherever he plays will be the strongest event in the game that week. That includes playing in places like Dubai, a European Tour event where many of the game’s other top golfers show up for a little golf and appearance money.

Consider that both major championship winners this year, while they live in the United States for much of the year, are international players. Adam Scott is from Australia, Justin Rose is from England. And consider that both of those players are among the top-10 players in the world, where six international players reside compared to just four Americans – Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar and Brandt Snedeker.

In the women’s game, well, things are a step more toward the international players. There where there is one American, one Norwegian, one Chinese player, one Australian, one player from Taiwan and five players from South Korea.

Now consider that as the PGA Tour reshapes its schedule starting this year, part of that shuffling will include more and more PGA Tour events played outside of the United States. Official tour events played in October and November will be in Malaysia, China and Mexico, with a stop for the World Cup in Australia. Oh, and California, Nevada and Georgia, too.

So the days of only paying attention to PGA Tour events need to be over for the true golf fan. The true fan needs to know that Graeme McDowell won in Frances this week as much as he needs to know that a Swede, Jonas Blixt, won the Greenbrier event in West Virginia Sunday.

It’s just not enough to pay attention to American golf any more, at least not if you want to know about the game’s best players. Because the game’s best players are scattered around the world, from the United States to Europe to Asia to Australia.




www-mydesert-com/article/20130709/SPORTS05/307090002/Golf-more-global-than-ever

In May, Puma Golf announced the release of the Faas Lite Mesh, the lightest shoes in golf according to Puma Golf.

In the video, Rickie Fowler is shown showing off the products from Puma Golf by jumping around in different directions.

“Weighing in at only 6.5 ounces, the Faas Lite Mesh is lighter than other golf shoes in the market,” commented Tom Manthe, Global Marketing Manager, PUMA Golf. The Faas Lite weighs 8.7 ounces.

The zero heel-to-top drop give golfers a barefoot feeling and allows for more of a natural stride and posture during the swing says Puma Golf.

The Faas Lite is a lightweight and waterproof golf shoe from a combination of foam and rubber according to Puma Golf.

The Faas Lite Mesh is Brilliant Blue/Limeade, Vibrant Orange/White and White/Black and the Faas Lite is available in White/Vibrant Orange, White/Black/Brilliant Blue and Black/Castle Rock.

The Faas Lite Women’s and Faas Lite Mesh Women’s have the same features, but weigh in even lighter at 7.0 ounces and 5.5 ounces, respectively. Women can choose from two colorways: White/PUMA Silver/Virtual Pink and Black/White/Virtual Pink in the Faas Lite Women’s and Black/Virtual Pink and White/Brilliant Blue in the Faas Lite Mesh Women’s.



Rickie Fowler, Faas Lite, Faas Lite Mesh, Puma Golf, footwear: Fowler shows off new footwear from Puma Golf

Michael Allen raised his arms and looked skyward.

The long, hard-breaking eagle putt that defined his round of 7-under 63 Friday had just finished its uphill journey to the back of the cup on the 14th hole.

"The miracle shot," he called it.

Allen said he wanted to lag the ball to within 10 feet. That it went in was a bonus.

"It wasn't about me," he said. "Obviously, something else happened. What do you say? The Lord did it or whatever. It was nice it went in, and it was kind of out of my control."

Just about everything else went right for the 54-year-old Allen, too. His best round of the year put him at 10 under after the second round of the U.S. Senior Open and allowed him to break away from the pack for a five-stroke lead. The cushion was the largest after 36 holes in the tournament's 34-year history.

"Man, oh, man. The biggest lead?" Allen said with a smile. "So I can blow the biggest lead. Is that what you're telling me?"

Rocco Mediate was Allen's closest pursuer after he shot a bogey-free, 3-under 67. Jeff Sluman also had a 67 and was another shot back.

"We've got to go out and get him," Mediate said. "He ain't going to come back, more than likely."

Allen started the day sharing the lead with six other players. He birdied five of the first eight holes and went out in 30 in hot, breezy conditions at the Omaha Country Club. He hit a rough patch after he made the turn, chunking a ball in the long grass on No. 12, but everything was right after he went birdie-eagle on Nos. 13 and 14.

Allen was short with his birdie putt on the last hole, ending his bid to match the U.S. Senior Open record of 62 by Loren Roberts at Prairie Dunes in 2006. His two-round total of 130 was lowest in tournament history.

Defending champion Roger Chapman was among the players who missed the cut. He followed his first-round 74 with a 76.

"Just played rubbish, that was it," he said.

Johnson, 2 others tied at John Deere

Defending champion Zach Johnson, Lucas Glover and rookie Patrick Reed are tied for the lead following second-round play at the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Ill.

Johnson shot a 5-under 66 to maintain a share of the lead for the second day in a row.

Reed shot a 63 in the morning session, just one year after missing the cut at TPC Deere Run, while Glover finished at 9 under on Friday.

Australia's Matt Jones is a shot back at 11 under. Troy Matteson leads a pack at 10-under, while three-time winner Steve Stricker is among those at 9 under.



Matthew ahead by 3 at Manulife

Catriona Matthew shot a 64 to take a three-stroke lead after the second round of the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic in Waterloo, Ontario.

Matthew's 15-under 127 at the tournament's midway point blew away her previous career-best 36-hole mark on tour by five strokes.

American Angela Stanford shot a 67 and was second, while Inbee Park, who is looking to win her fourth straight LPGA Tour event, had a 67 and was tied with three other players at 10-under. Ryann O'Toole (65), Anna Nordqvist (64) Belen Mozo (66), Chella Choi (65) and Meena Lee (66) were all 11 under.

Matthew sank a 25-foot eagle putt on the par-5 fifth and added five more birdies.



Golf: Allen surges to 5-shot lead at U.S. Senior Open - Houston Chronicle